It all started when they were standing on the sidelines during a soccer match. At first, it was just friendly conversation. He was there to watch his son play. She was there to watch her son play. At first, they talked about the weather and the match. Later, they talked about their sons and their schools. Then, they talked about their spouses and the challenges of marriage and family. Then, one day, they shared hints of their dreams of a different future. Just exactly when it slid into something more intimate, neither of them knew. But both of them knew the day they left the soccer match together… “just to get something to eat with the boys,” they said… but the conversation got very intense, filled with subtle shades of meaning that the boys wouldn’t understand… couldn’t understand… even if they had been listening, which they weren’t. From there, it was telephone calls at work… email messages during breaks… clandestine meetings in neighboring towns whenever they could get away… those days they had to “work late”… or so they told their families. Hundreds of intimate conversations later, they didn’t know get through a day without the other person… or how to stop what started so innocently months before.
“The heart is devious above all else… it is perverse… who can understand it?” What is it about our hearts that leads them to be so devious… so perverse? Why do we do the things we know we shouldn’t do? Why do we say things that have the power to hurt the people we love? Why do we make decisions we know will create anger… pain… confusion… mistrust… or worse for ourselves and for others? What is it that causes us to deviate from our planned course in life and move in a totally different direction… even when we know that this new direction is wrong… dangerous… or just plain stupid? How many of us have done things we know we shouldn’t have done? How many of us have purchased something we truly did not need… or eaten something we truly did not want… or gone some place we knew we should not go… or done something that may have jeopardized everything we have worked so hard to achieve? What is that little voice inside of us that coaxes us off the path we have chosen into a wilderness of deception? And what makes us vulnerable to such things in life?
Jeremiah is convinced that we are all susceptible to such idiocy… that it is part and parcel of being human. Even Apostle Paul said, in his letter to the Romans, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” What is it that causes us to do these things and how can we prevent ourselves from doing them? Perhaps, we can go back to Paul to find part of the answer. In the verses following the one I just quoted, Paul tells us, “Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” He goes on further to say, “I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” Even in this man… one of the strongest and most able leaders of the young church… there was a weakness… and the temptation to do what he knew to be wrong… as well as the willingness to admit that, sometimes, evil won. Sin, he said, was that strong. Evil… was that cunning. So that even with the effort he took to remain true to his course... he could still stray away.
The seductions of this world are many and varied. And the way that they manifest themselves in our lives is subtle. It’s that first decision to eat an extra slice of pizza when we are truly not hungry that eventually leads to a significant problem with our weight. It’s that first decision to stay late at work when what we have to do could wait until tomorrow that eventually leads to a breakdown in our family relationships. It’s that first decision to sleep late on Sunday mornings that eventually leads to a life without worship. It’s that first decision to take a casual conversation with a friend into sexual innuendo that eventually leads to significant problems in our marriage. It’s that first decision to find a high in life by taking a pill… or smoking a joint… or having a drink… that eventually leads to a major problem with chemical dependency down the road. It’s that first decision to not be totally honest with our spouse that leads to a pattern of lies that eventually undermines the trust on which a marriage is built. How easy it is to take that first step… and how easy it is for our own hearts to convince us that there is no danger in doing so! And the next thing we know, we are in it too deep and we don’t know how to escape. Then, we begin to live lives of “quiet desperation”… as Kierkegaard named it… for it is a life that is like living in the desert, where water is scarce and the grinding heat destroys hope.
“The heart is devious above all else… it is perverse… who can understand it?” “The first time, it happened by accident,” she said. She entered a lunch receipt into the cash register wrong. She meant to correct it immediately, but they were so busy that, at the end of the day, she still had the money in her pocket. When she came to work the next day, she forgot the money at home, but no one at work missed it. So, she kept it and used it to buy her little girl a treat… mentally arguing that the restaurant did get its money back. The next time money was really tight, she “adjusted” another lunch ticket and pocketed the change, convincing herself that they would never miss it and that she really needed it. Then, somehow, in awhile became once a month… once a month became once a week… once a week became once a day… until the day her manager confronted her. How could this happen? She was a good person. She just had a little trouble making ends meet sometimes. Besides, they’d never miss it… it was such a small amount. She just took a dollar here and a dollar there. And she worked hard. She’d earned it! Didn’t her little girl deserve a treat every now and then? “The heart is devious above all else… it is perverse… who can understand it?”
So, what is the answer? How can we avoid the mistakes that our own hearts can lead us into? How can we survive the quicksand that lies all around us in the world… especially when our hearts are so devious and deceitful? If we cannot trust our own judgment… if our own hearts lead us astray… if we cannot even recognize the first step that we take down this road… how can we possibly survive?
The answer, once again, comes from our text. “Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.” Oh, yes. It is like that… that awareness that, somehow, a misstep has been made and, somehow, we are sliding down a slippery slope and do not know how to stop. Yet, we cannot talk to anyone about it… we cannot even admit to ourselves that something is wrong. And yet, we know… we know what we are doing leads to destruction… and the conflict with ourselves… the guilt… the awareness of this devastating secret… causes us to isolate ourselves from others and to protect what little we have. So, we put on this bold face… when, behind the façade, there is a scared… lonely… defiant… tired individual. It is a dry and desolate place… a very lonely road.
On the other hand, our text tells us, “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” For the truth is that we cannot trust ourselves… our own hearts… our own minds… and that is why we so desperately need a relationship with God. But a relationship with God is not something that we can create instantaneously. Like any other relationship, it has to be cultivated… nurtured… intentional. Like a tree, it grows slowly. Its roots don’t develop overnight… they cannot be created on a whim. It is only when the roots of that relationship are buried deep in God and God’s word that we gain the strength to withstand the temptations and distractions of life. Then, like a tree whose roots are buried deep in the stream, we can draw the water we need when the droughts occur. The strength that we draw from God comes from the faithful cultivation of a long relationship with God.
When I first began my physical therapy in late November, I found that I was unable to lift the lower portion of my left leg off of the therapy table. It wasn’t just that my muscles were weak… it was that my brain could not even remember which muscle it was that controlled the lower part of my leg. I had to relearn the control of those muscles before I could redevelop the strength to use my leg. So it is with our relationship with God. If we never use it, we lose our ability to use its power in our lives. It is only in seeking that relationship daily that we build its strength so that we can call upon it when we need it.
That great philosopher, Stephen Covey, once said that “whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security… guidance… wisdom… and power.” Whether or not Stephen Covey is a great philosopher is a moot point. The truth is exactly as he has stated it: “Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security… guidance… wisdom… and power.” If money is at the center of our lives, then it is is what we turn to for security, guidance, wisdom and power. If another human being… or anything made by man… is at the center of our life, then that is what we turn to when we seek security, guidance, wisdom and power. But all those things cannot provide what God alone can give… life-giving water in an endless flowing stream that feeds us from the roots of our relationship with God and gives us… even in drought… all we need to not only survive, but to thrive and grow, providing shade to all who pass our way. Both of our texts today basically tell us that those who live in dependence upon God, rather than in dependence upon self are blessed. To entrust one’s life to God… to conform one’s life to God’s values… and to depend upon God as the all-sufficient resource for facing life’s worst is a blessing. This blessing is not a “reward,” but rather the result of choosing to live for God. Our ability to cope with whatever we encounter in life is inextricably tied to the commitment of our hearts. My challenge to you today is to seek God with all your heart… and, in him, find your strength for life. Amen.
Jeremiah 17:5-10; Luke 6:17-26